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“We need to be more present on social media; that’ll get more people involved in the church. The youth will love it. It’s evangelization.”
—Excited Parishioners
It’s important to evangelize people. Pope Paul VI emphasized that “The Church exists in order to evangelize.” Evangelization is the vocation of the Church and all her members. The problem with social media is that it promises connection, but often delivers isolation.
“I have come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were already blazing!” Luke 12:49
Jesus goes on to say, “Do you think that I have come to establish peace on the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division." He has come to pit two against three, and a son against his father, and mother against daughter. Truth often leads to conflict.
In my first few years of ministry, I experienced a powerful conversion.
“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.”
— Matthew 7: 7
This verse has always given me a mental image of prayer that looks like this: I am standing in front of a giant door, the door to Jesus' house, waiting for Jesus to open it and let me in; the assumption of course is that Jesus is just on the other side, waiting for me to knock; just watching. He knows I'm out here. Why doesn't he simply let me in? Is this really how God operates?
It's funny how everything becomes silent and still before the experience of impact. "Oh *BLEEP*." These were the not-so-poetic words that permeated the silence before my car accident in 2011. Two words. A simple prayer. "Lord, help!" probably would have been more appropriate, but Jesus heard my intention, even if the articulation of my request fell short (Good news for someone so often lacking). At the last moment
